James Watt, the son of a merchant, was born in Greenock,
Scotland, in 1736. At the age of nineteen Watt was sent to Glasgow to learn the trade of a
mathematical-instrument maker.

After spending a year in London, Watt returned to Glasgow in 1757 where he established his
own instrument-making business. Watt soon developed a reputation as a high quality
engineer and was employed on the Forth & Clyde Canal and the Caledonian Canal. He was
also engaged in the improvement of harbours and in the deepening of the Forth, Clyde and
other rivers in Scotland.

In 1763 Watt was sent a Newcomen steam engine to repair. While
putting it back into working order, Watt discovered how he could make the engine more
efficient. Watt worked on the idea for several months and eventually produced a steam
engine that cooled the used steam in a condenser separate from the main cylinder. James
Watt was not a wealthy man so he decided to seek a partner with money. John Roebuck, the
owner of a Scottish ironworks, agreed to provide financial backing for Watt's project.

When Roebuck went bankrupt in 1773, Watt took his ideas to
Matthew Boulton, a successful businessman from Birmingham. For the next eleven years
Boulton's factory producing and selling Watt's steam-engines. These machines were mainly
sold to colliery owners who used them to pump water from their mines. Watt's machine was
very popular because it was four times more powerful than those that had been based on the
Thomas Newcomen design.

Watt continued to experiment and in 1781 he produced a
rotary-motion steam engine. Whereas his earlier machine, with its up-and-down pumping
action, was ideal for draining mines, this new steam engine could be used to drive many
different types of machinery. Richard Arkwright was quick to importance of this new
invention, and in 1783 he began using Watt's steam-engine in his textile factories. Others
followed his lead and by 1800 there were over 500 of Watt's machines in Britain's mines
and factories.

In 1755 Watt had been granted a patent by Parliament that
prevented anybody else from making a steam-engine like the one he had developed. For the
next twenty-five years, the Boulton & Watt company had a virtual monopoly over the
production of steam-engines. Watt charged his customers a premium for using his steam
engines. To justify this he compared his machine to a horse. Watt calculated that a horse
exerted a pull of 180 lb., therefore, when he made a machine, he described
its power in relation to a horse, i.e. "a 20 horse-power engine". Watt worked
out how much each company saved by using his machine rather than a team of horses. The
company then had to pay him one third of this figure every year, for the next twenty-five
years. When James Watt died in 1800 he was a very wealthy man.

Another
account of James Watt

WATT,
JAMES,one of the most illustrious men of his time as a natural
philosopher, chemist, and civil engineer, was born at Greenock, on the 19th
of January, 1736. His father,James Watt, was a block-maker and ship
chandler, and for some time one of the magistrates of Greenock; and his
mother, Agnes Muirhead, was descended from a respectable family. During
boyhood his health was very delicate, so that his attendance at school was
by no means regular; nevertheless, by assiduous application at home, he soon
attained great proficiency in reading, writing, and arithmetic; and, by the
perusal of books that came within his command, he extended his knowledge
beyond the circle of elementary instruction of the public schools, and
cherished that thirst for information which is the characteristic of all men
of genius, and for which he was throughout life remarkable. An anecdote of
his boyhood has been preserved, showing the early bent of his mind. His
aunt, Mrs. Muirhead, sitting with him one evening at the tea-table, said,
"James, I never saw such an idle boy! Take a book, or employ yourself
usefully; for the last half hour you have not spoken a word, but taken off
the lid of that kettle, and put it on again." With the aid alternately of a
cup and a silver spoon, he was observing how the steam rose from the spout
and became condensed, and was counting drops of water. But there is little
incident in his life until he reached his eighteenth year, excepting that he
manifested a strong predilection for mechanical and mathematical pursuits.
In accordance with this natural bent, he departed for London, in 1754, in
order to learn the profession of a mathematical instrument-maker. When he
arrived in London, he placed himself under the direction of a mathematical
instrument-maker, and applied himself with great assiduity, and with such
success, that, although he was obliged, from want of health, to return to
his father’s roof in little more than a year, yet he persevered, and soon
attained proficiency in his business. He made occasional visits to his
mother’s relations in Glasgow, a city at that time considerably advanced in
that career of manufacturing industry and opulence, for which it has in more
recent times been so eminently distinguished. In that city, it was his
intention to settle as a mathematical instrument-maker; but he was violently
opposed by some corporations of the trades, who viewed him as an intruder
upon their privileges, although the business which he intended to follow,
was at that time little practised in Scotland. By this occurrence, the hopes
of Watt had been well nigh frustrated, and the energies of his inventive
mind had probably been turned in a different channel from that which
distinguished his future years, had it not been for the kind and well
directed patronage of the professors of the university. In the year 1757,
this learned body, who had at that time to reckon among their number some of
the greatest men then living--Smith, the political economist, Black, the
chemist, and Simson, the geometer--conferred upon Watt the title of
mathematical instrument-maker to the university, with all the privileges of
that office, and chambers within the waIls of their venerable seminary,
adjoining the apartments occupied by the celebrated printers, the Messrs
Foulis. He continued to prosecute his avocation in this place for about six
years, during which time, so far as health and necessary employment would
permit, he applied himself to the acquisition of scientific knowledge. It
was during this period, also, that he contracted a lasting friendship with
Dr Black, whose name will ever be conspicuous in the history of philosophy,
for his valuable additions to our knowledge of the doctrine of heat; and
also with Robison, then a student in Glasgow college, and who afterwards
filled the natural philosophy chair in the university of Edinburgh.

This period of Watt’s life
was marked by an incident, which in itself might appear trifling, and not at
all out of the course of his ordinary business, but which was nevertheless
productive of results, that not only gave immortality to his name, but
impressed a great and lasting change on the commerce and manners of his own
country, and also of a great portion of the world. We here allude to a
circumstance that shall shortly be mentioned, that led to the improvements
of Watt on the steam engine; and the events of his life are so intimately
interwoven with the history of the perfection of this extraordinary machine,
that it will be necessary, in a brief and popular way, to describe the
leading principles of its action.

The steam engine, at the time
of which we speak, was constructed after the plan invented by Newcomen. The
chief use to which these engines were applied, was the pumping of water from
coal mines, one end of the pump rod being attached to a long lever, or beam
supported in the middle. To the other end of this lever was attached the rod
of a piston, capable of moving up and down in a cylinder, after the manner
of a common syringe. The weight of the pump rod, &c., at the one end of the
beam, having caused that end to descend, the other end was necessarily
raised, and, the piston rising in the cylinder, steam was admitted from the
bottom to fill the vacuity. But when the piston arrived at the top, cold
water was injected at the bottom, and by reducing the temperature of the
steam, condensed it, forming a vacuum. In this state of things, the
atmosphere pressing on the top of the piston, forced it down, and raised the
pump rod at the other end of the beam. This operation being continued, the
pumping of the mine was carried on. Such was the form of the steam engine,
when Watt first found it; and such is its construction at many coal mines
even in our own day, where the economy of fuel is not a matter of any
importance.

Anderson, the professor of
natural philosophy, in the course of the winter of 1763, sent a model of
Newcomen’s engine to Mr Watt in order to be repaired. This was accordingly
done, and the model set in operation, and with this an ordinary mechanic
would have been satisfied. But the mind of the young engineer had two years
before this time been occupied in researches into the properties of steam.
During the winter of 1761, he made several very simple yet decisive
experiments, for the most part with apothecaries’ phials, by which he found
that a cubic inch of water willform a cubic foot of steam, equal
in elasticity to the pressure of the atmosphere, and also that when a cubic
foot of steam is condensed by injecting cold water, as much heat is given
out as would raise six cubic inches of water to the boiling point. To these
important discoveries in the theory of steam, he subsequently added a third,
beautifully simple, as all philosophical truths are, and valuable from its
extensive application to practical purposes: he found that the latent heat
of steam decreases as the sensible heat increases, and that universally
these two added together make a constant quantity which is the same for all
temperatures. This matter is commonly misrepresented, and it is stated not
only in accounts of the steam engine, but also in memoirs of Mr Watt, that
the discoveries of Dr Black regarding the properties of heat and steam laid
the foundation of all Watt’s inventions. Dr Black himself gave a correct
statement of the matter, and frequently mentioned with great candour, that
Mr Watt discovered unaided the latent heat of steam, and having communicated
this to the doctor, that great chemist was agreeably surprised at this
confirmation of the theory he had already formed, and explained that theory
to Mr Watt; a theory which was not made public before the year 1762. During
the same year Watt made some experiments with a Papin’s digester, causing
the piston of a syringe to move up and down by the force of steam of high
temperature, on the principle of the high pressure engine, now employed for
various purposes. But he gave up the idea from fear of bursting the boiler,
and the difficulty of making tight joints. These facts are sufficient to
prove that he had at this time some idea of improving the steam engine; and
he himself modestly says, "My attention was first directed in 1759, to the
subject of steam engines by Dr Robison, then a student in the university of
Glasgow, and nearly of my own age. Robison at that time threw out the idea
of applying the power of the steam engine to the moving of wheel carriages
and to other purposes; but the scheme was not matured, and was soon
abandoned on his going abroad." His active mind, thus prepared, was not
likely to allow the defects of the model which was put in his hands to pass
unobserved. This interesting model, which is still preserved among the
apparatus of the Glasgow university, has a cylinder whose diameter is two
inches, the length of stroke being six. Having repaired it, he tried to set
it a-going, the steam being formed in a spherical boiler whose diameter was
about nine inches. In the course of these trialshe found the
quantity of steam, as likewise that of the cold injection water, to be far
greater in proportion, than what he understood was required for engines of a
larger size. This great waste of steam, and consequently fuel, he
endeavoured to remedy by forming cylinders of bad conductors of heat, such
as wood saturated with oil, but this had not the desired effect. At last the
fact occurred to him, that the cylinder was never sufficiently cooled down
in order to obtain a complete vacuum. For some time before this it had been
found by Dr Cullen that under diminished pressure there is a corresponding
fall of the boiling point. It now became necessary to ascertain the relation
which the boiling point bears to the pressure on the surface of the water.
He was not possessed of the necessary instruments to try the boiling points
under pressures less than that of the atmosphere, but having tried numerous
points under increased pressures, he laid down a curve whose ordinates
represented the pressures and abscissas the corresponding boiling points,
and thus discovered the equation of the boiling point. These considerations
led Watt, after much reflection, to the true method of overcoming the
difficulties in the operation of Newcomen’s engine. The two things to be
effected were, 1st, to keep the cylinder always as hot as the steam to be
admitted into it, and secondly, to cool down the condensed steam and the
injection water used for condensation to a temperature not exceeding 100
degrees. It was early in the summer of l765 that the method of accomplishing
these two objects was first matured in his mind. It then occurred to him
that if a communication were opened between a cylinder containing steam and
another vessel exhausted of air and other fluids, the steam would
immediately rush into the empty vessel, and continue so to do until an
equilibrium was established, and by keeping that vessel very cool the steam
would continue to enter and be condensed. A difficulty still remained to be
overcome, how was the condensed steam and injection water, together with the
air, which must necessarily accompany, to be withdrawn from the condensing
vessel. Watt thought of two methods, one by a long pipe, sunk into the
earth, and the other by employing a pump, wrought by the engine itself; the
latter was adopted. Thus was laid open the leading principle of a machine
the most powerful, the most regular, and the most ingenious, ever invented
by man.

Watt constructed a model, the
cylinder of which was nine inches diameter, making several improvements
besides those above alluded to. He surrounded the cylinder with a casing,
the intervening space being filled with steam to keep the cylinder warm. He
also put a cover on the top, causing the piston rod to move through a hole
init, and the piston was rendered air-tight by being lubricated with
wax and tallow, instead of water as formerly. The model answered the
expectations of the inventor, but in the course of his trials the beam
broke, and he set it aside for some time.

In tracing the progress of
improvement in the steam engine, we have been obliged to pass over some
incidents in his life which took place during the same period, and which we
now proceed to notice. In the course of the year 1763, Mr Watt married his
cousin Miss Miller, daughter of the chief magistrate of Calton, Glasgow;
previously to which he removed from his apartments in the college, and
opened a shop in the Saltmarket, opposite St Andrew’s Square, for the
purpose of carrying on his business as Mathematical and Philosophical
instrument-maker. Here he applied himself occasionally in making and
repairing musical instruments, and made several improvements on the organ.
He afterwards removed to Buchanan’s land in the Trongate, a little west of
the Tontine, and in 1768 he shut shop, and removed to a private house in
King Street, nearly opposite to the Green market. It was not, however, in
any of these residences that the interesting experiments and valuable
discoveries connected with the steam engine were made; the experiments were
performed, and the model erected in the delft work at the Broomielaw quay,
in which concern Watt soon after became a partner, and continued so to the
end of his life.

In 1765, Dr Lind brought from
India a perspective machine, invented there by a Mr Hurst, and showed it to
his friend Mr Watt, who, by an ingenious application of the principle of the
parallel ruler, contrived a machine much lighter, and of more easy
application. Many of these machines were made and sent to various parts of
the world; and Adams, the eminent philosophical instrument-maker, copied one
of those sent to London, and made them for sale.

Mr Watt, having relinquished
the business of mathematical instrument-maker, commenced that of civil
engineer, and in the course of 1767, he surveyed the Forth and Clyde canal;
but the bill for carrying on this great and beneficial public work being
lost in parliament, his attention was directed to the superintendence of the
Monkland canal, for which he had previously prepared the estimates and a
survey. He likewise surveyed for the projected canal between Perth and
Forfar, as also for the Crinan canal, which was subsequently executed under
the superintendence of Rennie.

In 1773, the importance of an
inland navigation in the northern part of Scotland between the eastern and
western seas became so great, that Mr Watt was employed to make a survey of
the Caledonian canal, and to report on the practicability of connecting that
remarkable chain of lakes and valleys. These surveys he made, and reported
so favourably of the practicability of the undertaking, that it would have
been immediately executed, had not the forfeited lands, from which the funds
were to be derived, been restored to their former proprietors. This great
national work was afterwards executed by Mr Telford, on a more magnificent
scale than had originally been intended.

What Johnson said of
Goldsmith may with equal justice be applied to Watt, "he touched not that
which he did not adorn." In the course of his surveys, his mind was ever
bent on improving the instruments he employed, or in inventing others to
facilitate or correct his operations. During the period of which we have
been speaking he invented two micrometers for measuring distances not easily
accessible, such as arms of the sea. Five years after the invention of these
ingenious instruments, one Mr Green obtained a premium for an invention
similar to one of them, from the Society of Arts, notwithstanding the
evidence of Smeaton and other roofs that Watt was the original contriver.

Mr Watt applied for letters
patent in 1768, for "methods of lessening the consumption of steam and
consequently of fuel in the steam engine," which passed the seals in January
1769. Besides the improvements, or rather inventions already alluded to,
this patent contained in its specification methods to employ the steam
expansively upon the piston, and where water was not plentiful, to work the
engine by this force of steam only, by discharging the steam into the open
air after it has done its office, and also methods of forming a rotatory
steam engine. Thus was completed Watts single reciprocating engine and while
the patent was passing through the different stages an engagement was
entered into between the inventor and Dr Roebuck of the Carron iron works, a
man equally eminent for kindness of heart, ability, and enterprise. The
terms of this agreement were, that Dr Roebuck, in consideration of his risk
of capital, should receive two-thirds of the clear profits of the sale of
the engines which they manufactured. Dr Roebuck at this time rented the
large coal mines at Kinneil, near Borrowstownness, and under the
superintendence of Mr Watt an engine was erected at Kinneil house, the
cylinder of which was made of block tin, being eighteen inches diameter. The
action of this engine far surpassed even the sanguine expectations of the
proprietors. Preparations were accordingly made for the manufacture of the
new steam engine; but the pecuniary difficulties in which Dr Roebuck became
at this time involved, threw a check on the proceedings. From this period
till the end of 1773,during which time, as we have seen, Mr Watt was
employed in surveys, &c., little was done with the patent right obtained in
1769. About the end of the year 1773, while Mr Watt was engaged in his
survey of the Caledonian canal, he received intimation from Glasgow of the
death of his wife, who left him a son and a daughter.

His fame as an engineer had
now become generally known, and about the commencement of 1774, he received
an invitation from Mr Matthew Boulton, of the Soho foundery, near
Birmingham, to enter into copartnership, for the manufacture of the steam
engine. Mr Watt prevailed upon Dr Roebuck to sell his share of the patent
right to Mr Boulton, and immediately proceeded to Birmingham, and entered on
business with his new partner. This new alliance was not only exceedingly
fortunate for the parties themselves, but forms an important era in the
history of the manufactures of Great Britain. Few men were so well qualified
as Boulton to appreciate the merits of Watt’s inventions, or possessed of so
much enterprise and capital to put them into operation. He had already
established the foundery at Soho on a scale of magnificence and extent, not
at that time elsewhere to be found; and the introduction of Watt made an
incalculable addition to the extent and regularity of its operation.

The length of time and great
outlay necessary for bringing the manufacture of steam engines to such a
state as would yield a remuneration, was now apparent to Mr Watt, and he
clearly saw that the few years of his patent which had yet to run, would not
be by any means sufficient to yield an adequate return. Early, therefore, in
1774, he applied for an extension of his patent right, and by the zealous
assistance of Drs Roebuck and Robison, he obtained this four years
afterwards, the extension being granted for twenty-five years. The year
following the first application for the extension of the patent, the
manufacture of steam engines was commenced at Soho, under the firm Boulton,
Watt, and Co. Many engines were made at this foundery, and licenses granted
to miners in various parts of the country to use their engines, on condition
that the patentees should receive a third part of the saving of coals of the
new engine, compared with one of the same power on Newcomen’s construction.
An idea may be formed of the profits arising by this arrangement, when we
know that from the proprietors of three large engines erected at Chacewater
in Cornwall, Watt and Boulton received £800 annually.

John Smeaton had for many
years been employed in erecting and improving the steam engine on Newcomen’s
principle, and did as much for its perfection as beauty and proportion of
mechanical construction could effect. The fame of Smeaton does not rest on
his improvements on the steam engine. What he has done in other departments
of engineering, is amply sufficient to rank him as one of the most ingenious
men England ever produced. Yet even what he has left behind him, in the
improvement of Newcomen’s engine, is well worthy the study, and will ever
elicit the admiration of the practical mechanic. To a man of weaker mind
than Smeaton, it must have been galling to see all the ingenuity and
application which he had bestowed on the subject of steam power, rendered
almost useless by the discovery of a younger man. Yet when he saw Watt’s
improvement, he was struck with its excellence and simplicity, and with that
readiness and candour which are ever the associates of true genius, he
communicated to Mr Watt, by a complimentary letter, the high opinion he held
of his invention; admitting that "the old engine, even when made to do its
best, was now driven from every place, where fuel could be considered of any
value." How different this from the treatment he received from inferior
individuals, labouring in the same field! His right to the invention of a
separate condenser, was disputed by several, whose claims were publicly and
satisfactorily refuted. Among others, he was attacked in a strain of vulgar
abuse, amid a tissue of arrant falsehoods, by a Mr Hornblower, who wrote the
article "Steam Engine," in the first and second editions of Gregory’s
Mechanics. This Mr Hornblower, not contented with giving his own shallow
evidence against Watt, has, with the characteristic grovelling which
pervades the whole of his article, endeavoured to give weight to his
assertions, by associating with himself a respectable man. Mr Hornblower
states, that, in a conversation with Mr S. Moor, secretary to the Society
for the Encouragement of Arts, that gentleman had stated that Mr
Gainsborough was the true inventor of the separate condenser. Mr Moor had
doubtless an intimate knowledge of the true state of the matter; and,
fortunately for his reputation as a sincere and candid man, we find him
controvert this upon oath, at his examination in the case, Watt and Boulton
versus Bull, in 1792.

In 1775, Mr Watt married, for
the second time. The lady, Miss M’Gregor, was the daughter of Mr M’Gregor, a
wealthy merchant of Glasgow, who, as will be seen hereafter, was the first
in Britain, in conjunction with Mr Watt, to apply chlorine in the process of
bleaching. From this time, Watt applied himself assiduously to the
improvement of that powerful machine for which he had already done so much.
In 1781, he took out a patent for the regulating motion, and that beautiful
contrivance, the sun and planet wheel. The short history of this latter
invention, gives an apt illustration of his exhaustless powers of
contrivance. For the purpose of converting the reciprocating motion of the
large beam into a rotatory movement for driving machinery, he had recourse
to that simple contrivance, the crank; but while it was preparing at Soho,
one of the workmen communicated it to Mr Steed, who immediately took out a
patent, and thus frustrated Watt’s views. Mr Watt bethought himself of a
substitute, and hit upon the happy idea of the sun and planet wheel. This
and the like occurrences may have given him that fondness for patents, with
which he has frequently been charged.

During the course of the
following year, two distinct patents were granted to Mr Watt, one in
February, and the other in July, for an expansive engine—six contrivances
for regulating the motion—double acting engine—two cylinders--parallel
motion, by rack and sector—semirotative engine--and steam wheel. A third was
granted in 1784, for a rotative engine—parallel motions—portable engine and
steam carriage--working hammers--improved hand gear, and new method of
working the valves. The most important of these inventions are, the double
acting engine, in which steam is admitted both below and above the piston
alternately, steam pressure being thus employed to press on each side of the
piston, while a vacuum was formed over the other. By this contrivance, he
was enabled to double the power of the engine, without increasing the
dimensions of the cylinder. Tothe complete effecting of this, he was
obliged to cause the piston rod to move through a stuffing box at the top of
the cylinder; a contrivance, it must be stated, which had been some years
previous applied by Smeaton, in the construction of pumps. Simple as these
additions may at first appear, they were, nevertheless, followed by many
great advantages. They increased the uniformity of motion, and at the same
time diminished the extent of cooling surface, the size of boiler, and the
weight and magnitude of the whole machinery. Another vast improvement
involved in these patents, is the expansive engine in which the steam was
let fully in, at the beginning of the stroke, and the valves shut, when the
piston had advanced through a part of its progress, the rest being completed
by the expansion of the steam; which arrangement greatly increases the
power. This engine was included in the patent for 1782; though Mr Hornblower
had published something of the same nature the year before. But an engine on
the expansive principle was erected by Watt at Shadwell iron works in 1778,
and even two years before expansive engines had been manufactured at Soho;
facts which secure to Watt the honour of the priority of discovery. That
ingenious combination of levers which guided the piston rod, and is called
the parallel motion, was secured by patent of 1784, and remains to this day
unsurpassed as a beautifully simple mechanical contrivance.

In 1785, a patent was granted
to Mr Watt for a new method of constructing furnaces, and the consumption of
smoke. He likewise applied to the steam engine the governor, or conical
pendulum, the steam and condension gauges, and the indicator. About the same
time, in consequence of the delay and expense attendant on the numerous
experiments towards the perfection of this vast creator and distributor of
power, he found it necessary to apply to parliament for an extension of his
patent, which was granted to the end of the eighteenth century. By this
grant, the proprietors of the Soho foundery were enabled speedily to realize
a great fortune.

In the winter of the year
1786,the subject of this memoir, together with his able and active partner,
went to Paris, at the solicitation of the French government, in order to
improve the method of raising water at Marley. Here Mr Watt met with most of
the eminent men of science, who at that time adorned the French metropolis;
and among the rest, the celebrated chemist, Berthollet. The French
philosopher had discovered, in 1785, the bleaching properties of chlorine,
and communicated the fact to Mr Watt, with the power of patenting the
invention in England. This Mr Watt modestly declined doing, on the ground
that he was not the author of the discovery. Mr Watt saw the value of this
new process, and communicated the matter, through the course of the
following year, to his father-in-law, Mr M’Gregor, who at that time carried
on a large bleaching establishment in the vicinity of Glasgow. He sent an
account of the process, together with some of the bleaching liquor, in
March, 1787; and the process of bleaching by the new method was immediately
commenced at Mr M’Gregor’s field, and five hundred pieces were speedily
executed to entire satisfaction. Early in the following year, two foreigners
made an attempt to gain a patent for the new bleaching process; but they
were opposed by Mr Watt, and Messrs Cooper and Henry of Manchester, all of
whom had already bleached by Berthollet’s method. Notwithstanding the
misrepresentations in several histories of bleaching, it is manifest from
these facts as well as from the dates of several letters of Mr Watt and Mr
Henry, that the great improver of the steam engine, had also the honour of
introducing the process of bleaching by chlorine into Great Britain; and
though he was not the original discoverer, yet he greatly simplified and
economised the process of obtaining the discharging agent employed, and the
vessels and other arrangements used in the art of bleaching. Among other
improvements may be mentioned, his method of testing the strength of the
chlorine liquor, by ascertaining how much of it is necessary to discharge
the colour of a given quantity of infusion of cochineal. The benefits which
Mr Watt conferred on chemical science, did not terminate here. From a letter
written to Dr Priestley in 1783, and in another to M. De Luc, in the same
year, he communicated his important discovery of the composition of water.
But in the beginning of the following year, Mr Cavendish read a paper on the
same subject, claiming to himself the honour of discovery; and in the
histories of chemistry, the claims of Cavendish are silently admitted. There
is a confusion of dates in the documents on this subject, which at the
present day it is impossible to reconcile; but from the characters of the
two men, we are inclined to think that each made the discovery independently
of the other, and that therefore the credit is due to both. Mr Watt’s letter
to M. De Luc was read before the Royal Society, and published in their
Transactions for 1784, under the title of "Thoughts on the Constituent parts
of Water, and of Dephlogisticated Air; with an Account of some Experiments
on that subject." Mr Watt also contributed a paper on the medical properties
and application of the factitious airs, to the treatise of Dr Beddoes on
pneumatic medicine, and continued during the latter period of his life
deeply to engage himself in chemical pursuits.

A patent was granted to Mr
Watt in 1780, for a machine for copying letters and drawings. This machine,
which soon became well known, and extensively used, was manufactured by
Messrs Boulton and Kier, under the firm of James Watt and Company. He was
led to this invention, from a desire to abridge the time necessarily spent
in taking copies of the numerous letters he was obliged to write. It was
constructed in two forms, on the principle of the rolling press, one of them
being large, and fitted for offices; the other light, and capable of being
inclosed in a portable writing desk. Through the course of the following
year, Mr Watt invented a steam drying apparatus, for his friend, Mr M’Gregor,
of Glasgow. For this machine he never took out a patent, although it was the
first thing of the kind ever contrived; nor was there ever any drawing or
description of it published during his lifetime. [See Edinburgh Encyc.,
xviii., Steam Drying.] During the winter of 1784, Mr Watt made arrangements
for heating his study by steam; which method has since been extensively
applied to the heating of private houses, conservatories, hot-houses, and
manufactories. Concerning the history of this apparatus, it is but justice
to state, that colonel Cook had, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1745,
described a method of "heating apartments by means of the steam of water
conveyed along the walls by pipes;" but there is no proof that this was
known to Mr Watt.

In the year 1800, Mr Watt
withdrew from the concern at Soho, delivering his share of the business to
his two sons, James and Gregory, the latter of whom died in the prime of
life, much regretted by all who knew him. After having given ample proofs of
great mental endowments Mr Watt thus retired from business, with a well
earned competency, which enabled him to enjoy the evening of a well spent
life with ease and comfort in the bosom of his family. At no time had he
taken any active share in the management of the business of the Soho
foundery, nor were his visits to it, even while he was a partner, by any
means frequent. Mr Boulton was a man of excellent address, great wealth, of
business habits, and full of enterprise, and contributed greatly to the
improvement of the steam engine, by taking upon himself the entire
management of the works at Soho: he thus relieved from all worldly concern,
the mind of his illustrious partner, which was much more profitably employed
on those profound and valuable researches, by which he has added so largely
to the field of science. As Dupin well observes, "men who devote themselves
entirely to the improvement of industry, will feel in all their force the
services that Boulton has rendered to the arts and mechanical sciences, by
freeing the genius of Watt from a crowd of extraneous difficulties which
would have consumed those days that were far better dedicated to the
improvement of the useful arts."

Although Mr Watt retired from
public business, he did not relax in his ardour for scientific pursuits and
new inventions. Towards the end of the year 1809, he was applied to by the
Glasgow Water Company to assist them in pointing out a method of leading
water across the river, from a well on the south side, which afforded a
natural filter. From a consideration of the structure of the lobster’s tail,
he formed the idea of a flexible main, with ball and socket joints, to be
laid across the bed of the river, and which was constructed according to his
plan in the summer of 1810. This ingenious contrivance gave such
satisfaction, that another precisely similar was added a short time
afterwards. Two years subsequent to this, he received the thanks of the
Board of Admiralty, for his opinion and advice regarding the formation of
the docks then carrying on at Sheerness.

About the year 1813, it was
proposed to publish a complete edition of Dr Robison’s works, and the
materials were delivered, for the purpose of editing, into the hands of his
able friend, Playfair, who, not having sufficient leisure for such an
undertaking, transmitted them to Sir D. Brewster. The latter gentleman
applied to Mr Watt for his assistance in the revision of the article "Steam
Engine," for which article he had originally furnished some materials, when
it first appeared in the Encyclopedia Britannica; and to the article, in its
new form, he furnished many valuable corrections and additions.

In 1817, Mr Watt paid a visit
to his native country; and it surprised and delighted his friends to find
that he enjoyed good health, his mind possessed its wonted vigour, and his
conversation its wonted charms. During the last years of his life, he
employed himself in contriving a machine for taking copies of pieces of
sculpture. This machine never received the finishing touch of its inventor’s
hand; but it was brought to such perfection, that seven specimens were
executed by it in a very creditable manner. Some of these he distributed
among his friends, "as the productions of a young artist, just entering his
eighty-third year." When this machine was considerably advanced in
construction, Mr Watt learned that a neighbouring gentleman had been for
some time engaged in a similar undertaking; and a proposal was made to Mr
Watt, that they should jointly take out a patent, which he declined, on the
ground, that from his advanced age, it would be unwise for him to enter upon
any new speculation. It was always Mr Watt’s opinion that this gentleman had
no knowledge whatever of the construction of the machine.

The health of Mr Watt, which
was naturally delicate, became gradually better towards the latter period of
his long and useful life. Intense headaches arising from an organic defect
in the digestive system, often afflicted him. These were often aggravated
and induced by the severe study to which be commonly subjected himself, and
the perplexity arising from the frequent lawsuits in which he had been
engaged towards the close of the eighteenth century. It must not be inferred
from this last statement, that this great man, whose discoveries we have
been recounting, was by any means litigiously inclined. His quiet and
peaceful mind was ever disposed to shrink from the agitations of paper wars
and law pleas, and to repose in the quiet retreats of science. Many attempts
were made to pirate his inventions and to encroach upon his patent rights,
against which he never made any other defence than that which become an
honest man, i. e. an appeal for the protection of the law of the
land. He lived to see all these attempts to rob him of the profits of his
inventions,as well as the envy and detraction which are ever the
followers of merit, silenced for ever, and terminated a long, useful, and
honourable life in the full possession of his mental faculties, at his
residence at Heathfield in Staffordshire, on the 25th of August, 1819,
having reached his eighty-fourth year.

The fame of Watt will in
future ages rest secure upon the imperishable basis of his many discoveries,
and he will ever be ranked in the first class of those great men who have
benefited the human race by the improvement of the arts of industry and
peace. Even during his lifetime this was known and recognized, and he
received several honorary distinctions. In 1784, he was elected a fellow of
the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the year following he became fellowof the Royal Society of London. In 1787, he was chosen corresponding
member of the Batavian Society; in 1806, he received the honorary degree of
LL.D. from the university of Glasgow; and ten years later, he was made a
member of the national institute of France.

Respecting the private
character of Watt it would be difficult to communicate an adequate idea of
its excellence. Those who knew him will ever remember that in his private
intercourse with society he elicited from them more love and admiration than
they can everexpress. He was benevolent and kind to all those who
came about him, or solicited either his patronage or advice. His
conversation was easy, fluent, and devoid of all formality; replete with
profound and accurate information on all subjects, blended with pertinent
and amusing anecdote—such that, when combined with big plain unaffected
language, the mellow tones of his manly voice, his natural good humour and
expressive countenance, produced an effect on those around him which will
hardly ever fade from memory. He read much, and could easily remember and
readily apply all that was valuable of what he read. He was versed in
several of the modern languages, antiquities, law, and the fine arts, and
was largely read in light literature. His character was drawn up by his
friend Francis Jeffrey, with a fidelity and eloquence that has made itknown to almost every one. We will, therefore, forbear to quote it here,
and bring this memoir to a conclusion by placing before the reader what has
been said of Watt by his illustrious countryman and friend, the author of
Waverley. In the playful letter to captain Clutterbuck in the introduction
to the Monastery, Sir Walter Scott gives the following lively description of
his meeting in Edinburgh with this remarkable man:—"Did you know the
celebrated Watt of Birmingham, captain Clutterbuck? I believe not, though,
from what I am about to state, he would not have failed to have sought an
acquaintance with you. It was only once my fortune to meet him, whether in
body or in spirit it matters not. There were assembled about half a score of
our northern lights, who had amongst them, heaven knows how, a well known
character of yourcountry, Jedediah Cleishbotham. This worthy person
having come to Edinburgh during the Christmas vacation, had become a sort of
lion in the place, and was led in leash from house to house along with the
guizzards, the stone eater, and other amusements of the season, which
‘exhibit their unparalleled feats to private family parties, if required.’
Amidst this company stood Mr Watt, the man whose genius discovered the means
of multiplying our national resources to a degree perhaps even beyond his
own stupendous powers of calculation and combination, bringing the treasures
of the abyss to the summit of the earth; giving the feeble arm of man the
momentum of an Afrite; commanding manufactures to arise, as the rod of the
prophet produced water in the desert; affording the means of dispensing with
that time and tide which wait for no man, and of sailing without that wind
which defied the commands and threats of Xerxes himself. This potent
commander of the elements—this abridger of time and space—this magician,
whose cloudy machinery has produced a change on the world, the effects of
which, extraordinary as they are, are perhaps only now beginning to be
felt—was not only the most profound man of science, the most successful
combiner of powers and calculator of numbers, as adapted to practical
purposes—was not only one of the most generally well informed, but one of
the best and kindest of human beings.

"There he stood, surrounded
by the little band I have mentioned of northern literati, men not less
tenacious, generally speaking, of their own fame and their own opinions than
the national regiments are supposed to be jealous of the high character
which they have gained upon service. Methinks I yet see and hear what I
shall never see and hear again. In his eighty-fifth year, the alert, kind,
benevolent old man had his attention at every one’s question, his
information at every one’s command. His talents and fancy overflowed on
every subject. One gentleman was a deep philologist; he talked with him on
the origin of the alphabet as if he had been coeval with Cadmus: another was
a celebrated critic; you would have said the old man had studied political
economy and belles lettres all his life; of science it is unnecessary to
speak, it was his own distinguished walk. And yet, captain Clutterbuck, when
he spoke with your countryman, Jedediah Cleishbotham, you would have sworn
he had been coeval with Claverse and Burley, with the persecutors and
persecuted, and could number every shot the dragoons had fired at the
fugitive Covenanters. In fact, we discovered that no novel of the least
celebrity escaped his perusal, and that the gifted man of science was as
much addicted to the productions of your native country, (the land of Utopia
aforesaid;) in other words, as shameless and obstinate a peruser of novels
as if he had been a very milliner’s apprentice of eighteen."

A highly characteristic
statue of Watt, by Chantrey, adorns a Gothic monument reared to his memory,
by his son, Mr James Watt, who died June 2, 1848, in his 80th year. Three
other statues of him by Chantrey have been erected— one of them, of colossal
size, stands in Westminster Abbey, and bears an elegant inscription by lord
Brougham. The countenance of this statue has been characterised as the
personification of abstract thought. Glasgow possesses the other two—one of
marble, in the museum of the university, and the other of bronze, in
George’s Square. His native town of Greenock has also rendered appropriate
homage to his genius, by erecting not only his statue but a public library,
which bears his name. An admirable Eloge on Watt and his inventions was
pronounced before the National Institute of France by the late M. Arago.
Lord Brougham has also celebrated his merits in his Historical Account of
the Composition of Water, which is published as an appendix to the Eloge.

James WattBy Andrew Carnegie (1907)

When the publishers asked me to write the Life of Watt,
I declined, stating that my thoughts were upon other matters. This settled
the question, as I supposed, but in this I was mistaken. Why shouldn't I
write the Life of the maker of the steam-engine, out of which I had made
fortune? Besides, I knew little of the history of the Steam Engine and of
Watt himself, and the surest way to obtain knowledge was to comply with the
publisher's highly complimentary request. In short, the subject would not
down, and finally, I was compelled to write again, telling them that the
idea haunted me, and if they still desired me to undertake it, I should do
so with my heart in the task.

I
now know about the steam-engine, and have also had revealed to me one of the
finest characters that ever graced the earth. For all this I am deeply
grateful to the publishers.

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